From Trampoline Springs to Honda Gold Wings

Don’t send a man to a Honda shop for trampoline springs unless you are ready for the ride of your life. In the spring of 1975 my husband, Ted Ray Coleman, went to the local Honda dealership to purchase some replacement springs for our three-year-old son’s trampoline. Only in a small town like Hereford, Texas, can this sort of thing happen. Well, along with a handful of springs, came a new CB360 Honda street bike. It was a beauty, and we were hooked!
Ted Ray had a motorcycle before we married, but my parents would not allow me to ride it while we were dating, so he sold it. Now we were married, had a child, and thought it would be a great mode of transportation to and from work for Ted Ray.
He soon moved up to a CX500. Then came the CB900 and another child. We were enjoying riding and raising two delightful little boys. Life was good. Our oldest son wanted to know when he could have his own bike, and for some reason we set nine years old as the magic age. Do you know how fast nine years can fly by?

So, on Chris’ ninth birthday, here came the 50cc Honda. I didn’t know they made motorcycles that small. When we decided to head to the mountains where Ted’s dad lived for a vacation, I got a 175cc Kawasaki on-off road bike and began to learn the ups and downs of cycle riding. Soon Rusty was seven and Chris begged us to let him get a bike too so they could ride together. So we sold Ted Ray’s street bike, and bought Ted a 350cc Honda dirt bike and Rusty a 50cc bike. Oh, the fun we had! There was a dirt track at the end of our block, and it didn’t take long for the boys to move up to larger bikes. Chris even went into racing after high school, winning many trophies.
As the boys grew up and left home, they both eventually sold their bikes for cars and moved on with their lives. Mom and Dad were home alone. What do we do now?
After a few years of trying other activities to fill the empty nest syndrome, we finally came back to our first love, motorcycles. Ted Ray found a navy blue 1986 GL1200 Gold Wing. The bug had bit again! Then there was the wineberry red GL1500 we bought from a member of “TopWings,” the Gold Wing club we began riding with.
When the new 1800s began to arrive, Ted Ray decided that he would like a white one. So we waited and waited and waited. In the meantime, I decided I was tired of looking at the back of Ted Ray’s helmet and took a motorcycle safety riding course at the junior college 45 miles away in Amarillo. What a wonderful program! I recommend it highly. We found an 1100 Honda Shadow Saber for me. It was silver-gray with phantom flames—what a beauty! I began to enjoy the freedom that comes from having control over your speed, your vision and being one of the gang, not just a Co-Rider.
One day in February of 2004, we got an e-mail from a friend and fellow Gold Winger showing us a white GL1800 sitting in the window of David Brown’s Sports Center in Amarillo. Well, what else could we do but buy it? Once they had it all customized the way Ted ordered with a CB and spoiler, he was a happy camper. We began to ride with two other GL1800s in Hereford, one red and one blue. We decided that the Gold Wings were the flag and I was the pole. (Red, white, blue, and gray.) We were quite a sight, riding down the highway!
It was during one of our Sunday rides in April 2005 that Ted Ray insisted I ride his bike for a while. I was feeling kind of spunky, so for once I agreed. Well, he never got it back that day!
We immediately began looking for a yellow GL1800, since that is my favorite color. As it turned out, a friend of ours was selling his, and the rest is history. We began adding chrome and lights, and in May we attended the Texas District Gold Wing rally in Wichita Falls. While we were there I won a free pinstriping job from Dirk Blacker. What a blessing! I just thought my bike was pretty before—now it is gorgeous! (The picture is from that rally.)
Tomorrow we will ride to pick up our white Escapade trailer from Trikes & Trailers of Oklahoma City. We already have the license plate that reads: HER JNK. Oh, well, it is all for fun anyway, right?
So, if you see a beautiful white GL1800 pulling a white trailer followed by a drop-dead gorgeous yellow 1800, it just might be us.
And, if you are out hunting for trampoline springs and a motorcycle jumps into your basket, please, just take it home and love it. We did.